DEP updates Marcellus Shale production data

Pennsylvania's deep-well natural gas production for the first six months of 2012 jumped more than 80 percent compared with the same period in 2011, according to revised figures released Tuesday by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Drillers extracted 793 billion cubic feet of gas, compared with 432.5 billion cubic feet in the first half of 2011 and 630 billion cubic feet in the second half.

The Marcellus Shale accounts for almost all of Pennsylvania's deep-well natural gas production, though a small amount of production has come online from the Utica and other formations, DEP spokesman Kevin Sunday said.